What's wrong with this lawyer?!

"What? Judge Zhou wanted to talk to me before he fell into a coma? This... isn't that inappropriate?"

Old Tang was speaking into the phone at Tengda Law Firm.

"Director Qian, this... as you know, I'm a lawyer and he's a judge. Anything happening privately really isn't good. We need to avoid any impropriety..."

This situation was truly outrageous; Old Zhou was the head of the civil division and had fallen into a coma, specifically asking to see him, Tang Fangjing, by name. Moreover, the call came directly from the vice-president of the Guangming District Court.

"Well then, Director Qian, I'll go to the hospital to see Judge Zhou. Judges from our court really need to take care of their health; they shouldn't overwork themselves. Serving the people also means minding one's health..."

On the other side of the phone, Director Qian hung up. You, Tang Fangjing, have the gall to tell a judge to take care of his health?

The year had just begun, and the number of cases closed already exceeded the tally from the last quarter!

"Qingqing, come with me on a trip, and you can buy some things on the way," Old Tang called out. Director Qian had been quite helpful during the last case of a botched construction project, so he still had to make the visit.

"Ah? Big Brother Tang, where are we going now?" Wang Qingqing asked, brushing her fringe aside.

"We're going to the hospital to see Judge Zhou. God knows what happened; he suddenly collapsed. He was almost gone and wanted to see me. Sigh, it's not always good to be so popular..."

Wang Qingqing: "...Are you sure this is about being popular?"

Old Tang stepped out, and Tengda Law Firm was still a hive of activity.

Even though people nowadays are reluctant to go to court, there's no helping it; the workload is enormous. On top of that, some companies and organizations act unreasonably, leading to the courts remaining busy.

Old Song had taken on a few labor dispute cases recently. The situation with labor disputes is really out of hand now, and companies like Phoenix Company are actually considered the good ones.

Of course, if it wasn't a good company, Fu Xiaoyu wouldn't be trying every means to stay.

"Just for three thousand yuan, and they still force you to go through arbitration, your company really leaves one speechless," Old Song said to the girl in front of him.

Many labor disputes actually involve small amounts, sometimes only a couple of thousand or even just a thousand yuan. Yet, the other party would rather spend three thousand to hire a lawyer than give that money to the employee.

Old Song didn't know what to make of this. From the company's perspective, this was standard practice, and lawyers would advise the same. But from the employee's perspective, these companies were nothing good.

"Alright then, now we just wait for the arbitration hearing. You can go if you want to; if you don't, you don't have to," continued Old Song.

Perhaps influenced by Tang Fangjing, he was now very keen on handling these small-claim labor and trade disputes.

After the girl left, Old Song stood up to find Old Wang, ready to discuss the establishment of a "small claim risk agency" agreement.

This was Tang Fangjing's suggestion. Tengda now had plenty of cases and many lucrative ones. Under these circumstances, it was time to give back to society a bit.

Take these small-claim cases, for instance; parties involved could hardly find a lawyer. For a five hundred yuan claim, hiring a lawyer would cost at least a thousand or even two thousand yuan. Naturally, they'd be unwilling.

So it was necessary to set up a special contract for such cases, but this conflicted with the rules of the bar association, so they had to give the bar association heads up first. Enjoy new adventures from empire

Not for the sake of profit, but to let those who would've otherwise chosen to "keep the peace" be able to defend their legal rights.

As for manpower, the firm had plenty of interns and salaried lawyers; they were not short-handed at all.

It was heard that in The Capital and Magic City, firms had already become corporate, with all staff on salary, just like company employees, making them hardly different from companies.

As soon as he entered the office, he saw Old Wang polishing his name badge, his expression melancholic.

"Old Song, who do you think is the director of Tengda Law Firm?"

Old Song was caught off guard by the question, but quickly chuckled, "Do we even need to ask? Everyone knows the director of Tengda Law Firm is surnamed Tang."

Uh... huh?

"Just kidding, don't get worked up, Old Wang, hey hey hey, what are you doing, we've been friends for years, you going to get violent over this!?"

Ten minutes later, Old Wang said, "That contract you mentioned, I asked the bar association about it, and it's tricky. If it blows up, it won't fly with them at all. We have to take it slow."

Old Song nodded, "Alright then, let's leave it at that for now, I've got other things to do."

He stood up, heading to the door and laughed again, "By the way, I think many are mistaken because your badge isn't noticeable. How about you put up an LED sign at your door?"

Old Wang paused, as if he had just discovered a new world.

Old Song left the office, suddenly wondering if Old Wang took the joke seriously, that was just a joke...

At Handong Province's First Hospital, Old Tang stepped out with Wang Qingqing. Old Zhou had called him over to suggest that in the future similar cases could be transferred to Xihong District Court.

Bright District was really struggling to cope.

Right there, Old Tang expressed his objection. The jurisdiction of a court is clearly defined by the civil procedure law; whichever court was supposed to handle it should do so. How could cases that belonged to Bright District be transferred to Xihong District?

Old Zhou then straightforwardly said they could apply for the Jingzhou Intermediate Court to designate jurisdiction, which is also stipulated by the civil procedure law...